Manuals may be too generic and cumbersome for many people, and it is believed that there are people who do not like to read manuals. While some devices may be usable without a manual, other devices may be more complicated requiring a manual to operate them. This problem may become worse since automotive industry trends may indicate that more devices are being integrated into vehicles.
Those who use manuals for vehicles or other complex equipment or devices may complain that it is tedious to read these manuals. In particular, when traveling, for example, they may rent a car, which is unfamiliar, and may have little time to peruse the manual due to, for example, a tight travel schedule.
The reluctance and/or unwillingness to use manuals may be explained in that these manuals may only utilize written languages, which may be adequate in some circumstances, for example, to explain abstract concepts, but not in other instances, for example, to explain intuitive objects or process. Additionally, manuals may be designed for general users and not for each individual need at each specific occasion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,499 refers to a vehicle diagnosis and health monitoring system that uses a client/server architecture to keep vehicle relevant data in a database and to check the status of the vehicle remotely using a voice interface. U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,499 indicates that the diagnosis and health monitoring system may be used to update user manuals but there is no direct link to any manual construction process.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,335 refers to an automobile personal computer system that allows a user to wirelessly interact with merchants, communications facilities, information providers, computers at the home or office, and other entities. Products may be purchased using voice commands or by interacting with displays in the automobile.
U.S. Patent Publication 20020004719 refers to a machine interface for interfacing a user to a machine that receives input words from the user. Scores for at least some of the input words are determined using scores for words appearing in each passages of the text. A passage in the text having the highest combined score for the input words is identified and a corresponding dialogue instruction set is executed to generate words for output and to respond to input words from the user. In this regard, the system of U.S. Patent Publication 20020004719 merely returns a text passage with the highest score without further representation. No preprocessing or structural investigation of the document occurs.